Making sense of life as we know it, in the light of evolution.

An Emerging Parasite: Typanosoma cruzi

Kinetoplastida, is one of my favorite parasite classes. They are cool biologically (the kinetoplast, I’M TELLING YOU), and in terms of the extreme nature of the diseases they cause.

And one that has long held sway in Latin America is Chagas, a disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi. The parasite is limited in it’s range because it requires a vector, Triatomine also known as the “kissing” bug.

However, with record high climate in North America, our little kissing arthropod is moving north and into the US!